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ADDRESS 



O P 



COL. II. B. CARRINGTON, U. S. A., 



NDiANAPOLiS, INDIANA, JUNE 17, 1869, 



IN AID OF THE ERECTION 



OF A 



N 



; 




EW (wHUPvCH TZvDIFICE, 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL (COLORED) SOCIETY. 



/ 



INDIANAPOLIS: 

DOUGLASS & CONNER, PRINTERS, 



1869. 






/a- 3m 






Upon motion, his Excellency, Governor Conrad Baker, wag 
called to the chair as presiding officer, and Mr. AVilliam Walden, 
(colored) wjis appointed Secretary. 

ORDER OF i:XERCISES. 

Music— "Tramp, Tramp," by the Indianapolis (colored) Brass Band. 



ADDRESS. 



KIND WORDS TO COLORED CITIZENS UPON THE RELIGIOUS, EDU- 
CATIONAL, SOCIAL AND PERSONAL DUTY OF THEIR RACE. 

In accordance with the desire of those colored citizens who 
are erecting a new house for Divine worship, and w^ho 
believe that a few words of counsel from me will aid the 
enterprise and stimulate their aspirations to grow strong, in 
all the elements which give value to personal character, I 
have so far departed from a settled repugnance to speak pub- 
licly upon any subject, since the war, as to consent to this 
familiar talk upon themes that press immediately upon your 
condition and your prospects for the future. 

My profession, as you know, does not occupy, nor aspire to 
occupy, the field of party politics or general oratory ; and yet 
no calling whatever, can entirely absolve any Christian man 
from the ever present obligation to use influence and strength, 
at all proper times, in giving impulse and sanction to such 
moral and religious agencies as are material to the well-being 
and advancement of others. 

I can well see that to the colored people of the United 
States the present is a transition period of great importance. 
It is a period wherein they have much to learn and much to 
do. Upon the spirit, courage, ambition and purity of motive 
with which they labor, will largely depend the public estimate 
of their fitness for enlarged franchises ; and, on the other hand, 
it is certain that if they accept national blessings with passive 
indifference, they will go backward, instead of forward, in all 
essential elements of civilized grov>'th and culture. 

There have been recent statements in the public press, that 
in some parts of the South, where the restraints of the former 



6 Address of 



social condition have passed away, there has been a partial 
revival of superstitions and usa.£;es which are essentially- 
groveling, brutish and heathenish. While you cannot but 
regret, with others, any such tendency, it is no less certain that 
some such reaction was natural, and that there, is laid upon 
you, and upon the whole American people, peculiar obligations 
at times like the present. You have, at home, in the midst of 
an advanced civilization, the more cause to make your whole 
life conform to the highest rules of moral action, in proportion 
as you enjoy privileges and mercies which those just freed do 
not possess, and can only gradually attain. You know that 
the arm is strengthened by exercise, and is weakened by dis- 
use. The blacksmith's muscles are hard and tough as his 
sinews. The student and the idler — the one from exclusive 
brain-work, and the other from no work at all— lare useless for 
almost all physical endeavor. So with many of your race. 
They need the exercise of the best qualities of manhood, and 
they need advice and encouragement from others, in order that 
the large number just emerging from the pit of slavery may 
find support and countenance from the conduct and good 
behavior of their brethren who have enjoyed the blessing of 
freedom for years. There are few fields for the missionary 
and philanthropist where more good can be done than among 
the colored people of the South ; and I have undertaken this 
address to-night because I feel that you should not depend 
alone upon your own counsels, but seek from those who have 
had more learning and experience all possible help in the 
improvement of your race. I know that the clergy of this 
city, not of your color, are interested in your welfare, and that 
you will gain strength, knowledge and wisdom by occasionally 
inviting them to your pulpits, and by gradual growth into 
their habits of life and thought. 

I speak plainly and familiarly, hoping to quicken your desire, 
youc industry, and your faith in the dawning future. 

I shall not treat of education, (as has been announced,) in 
the common acceptation of that term. The word is from the 
Latin language, and one part means leader, and was applied 
to great Generals or Commanders. The word "education" 



Col. H. B. Carrington. 



might almost literally be rendered in English, thus : " To lead 
oat from ignorance, and establish the life of knowledge, hap- 
piness and safety." When you are lead ont from temptation, 
you are being educated for a better life. As you are lead out 
from ignorance, so you acquire knowledge. Schools and books 
are not entirely wiihin brick walls and muslin binding. The 
whole world is a school-house; every fact in daily life is 
designed as a lesson ; and all Nature is a book of study in 
the progress of education. 

The end of American slavery has brought upon your race 
which so long suffered under its fearful oppression, new 
responsibilities and duties. That rescue has been so recent, 
that you hardly realize the fact, and do not yet understand 
fully how to turn to the best advantage the freedom attained. 

Many here present can remember years of struggle, during 
v/hich the best of Christian ministers endangered life by 
advocating emancipation, and when the only channel through 
which benevolence could liberate the black man from slavery 
was to secure his exportation to Africa, there to begin life 
anew. I remember very well that thirty years ago the Rev. 
Noah Porter, at Farmington, Connecticut, had the windows 
of his lecture-room stoned, because of prayer for the slaves 
captured on the Armistead, who were being cared for on a 
farm near the village. And in 1849, when Frederick Douglass 
attempted to speak at the Ohio State House, fire engines were 
brought to the ground, to drown out the audience. And yet 
times changed so rapidly, that in 1861 I had the pleasure of 
delivering a flag to Mx. Langston, for the 58th Massachusetts 
Regiment, (perhaps the first flag so presented,) from the terrace 
of the new State House, near where Mr. Douglass had been 
mobbed. 

The cowardice of State and Church had alike protracted 
the torture of the black race, multiplied the horrors of the 
dungeon, the lash and the halter, and trained up a blood-hound 
class of leaders as merciless as the trained dogs of the South- 
ern planters. 

Year by year the nation increased its debt to justice and 
humanity, until God, in His mercy, instead of sending fire 



8 Address of 



from heaven, as he did to consume Sodom and Gomorrah, 
only sent the greatest war of human history, and in the blood 
of a million of men, in the wasting of half a nation, in the 
tears and groans of countless widows and orphans, wiped out 
that generation. of slave owners and redeemed a race to liberty. 

If ever a curse came home to plague its inventors, it was 
slavery. The inventor of the guillotine is said to have had 
his own head cut oft" by his own ingenious machine. So, 
blazing cities, burning mansions, prostrate industry, and des- 
olated plantations, felt the wrath of God through the march 
of the once despised Abolitionist. As if to make the justice 
more signal, exquisite and complete, the " colored troops fought 
bravely," and, with arms in their hands, marched side by side 
with their co-deliverers to the enfranchisement of their people 
and the rescue of the imperiled Republic. 

The boasted liberty which had taken refuge from the tyranny 
of Great Britain, and embarking on the Mayflower, had 
landed in New England, thence to overrun a continent and 
become the light of the world, had fattened itself upon human 
blood and become the agent of the vilest outrages upon man. 
It was righteous and just, that, in the sequel. Northern blood 
should also be spilled; for Northern timidity, avarice, and^ 
forgetfulness of the God who had delivered them from their 
oppression through the war of the Revolution, had hardened 
their hearts, and they refused to let the people go free. 

As if to assimilate to the example of the children of Israel 
who, when they were hurried out of bondage, took the jewels 
and treasurers of their task masters, so houses and lands, and 
all the supplies of the Freedmans Bureau that were taken 
from the oppressors, were converted into blessings to aid and 
comfort the ransomed. The scourge of human slavery had 
so long sounded in the land, that the Hand of High Heaven 
turned it upon North and South alike, and the wail over the 
death of the first-born, was heard in every house, as years before 
it appealed in vain from the cabin and negro quarters. Serf- 
dom had ceased, though Slavery lingered. England and 
France had advanced in the right direction ; but America 



Col. H. B. Carring-ton. 



kicked against the pricks, and would not hear the voice of 
Providence, or the groan of the sufferer?. 

Before the fall of Fort Sumter, in April, 1861, in words to 
the people of Ohio, and before blood was shed, I was im- 
pelled to declare this sentiment: 

" We are at war. It is our existence that is at stake. The 
shedding of blood is a mere contigency in the contest, neither 
commencing nor ending the struggle. We shall not lail; for 
the age, which is an age of struggle, will find America rooted 
to the cause of Freedom. We shall not abuse our trust. 
The exalted privilege of leading the nations will not lapse 
from our control. Be not deceived. The people, born to 
peace, and dreading the inroad of red war more than pesti. 
lence and famine, are coining with calm and deliberate minds 
to that sublime but solemn conclusion, that they will offer 
their lives and fortunes as a free will offering, upon the altar 
of Country, Liberty and Independence. I hear the shackles 
of party clang as they are dashed to the earth. 1 i^ee the 
bonds part that bind the devotees of self and mammon. I 
see treasure offered without stint or limit to purchase back 
the rights imperiiled. I see the presage of a tempest. It 
will gather volume, and roll from the East, and North, and 
West, until you shall rejoice in every sacrifice of treasure, 
and glory in ev>-ry drop of blood expended for the public 
weal, for the whole continent shall be free, and the nations of 
the world shall pay you homage." 

Fort Sumter fell I The rest you know. Had I declared a 
dream? The countless thousands of fresh blossoms that so 
lately exhaled their grateful odors from tens of thousands of 
honored graves, are fresh testimony that I did not then, as 
one never can, over-estimate the grandeur, the scope, the sac- 
rifices and the issues of that struggle. 

The vv^ar came, was prosecuted and ended, and with it 
came the end of human slavery. Slowly but surely the bad 
blood that remains is being purified by the application of be- 
neficent laws and the persuasion of the necessary constraint, 
so that no long period will elapse before reconstructed States 



10 Address of 



shall involve regenerated hearts, and the whole nation shall 
prosper and flower in the luxuriance of a better life. 

Neither have I recalled the past and brought back bitter 
memories, with the purpose of stirring your passions, or un- 
worthily triumphing over misguided countrymen, enemies 
in arms, but again to be brethren at heart. 

The South is rescued from her worst enemy. Capital, and 
manufactures, and emigration are to build up her bulwarks as 
never could have been realized in that former unnatural life. 
Weights are cast off, and she runs with the North an even 
race of peaceful industry, in which each section shall njoice 
and glory in the triumphs of the other, and find in the other 
the complement of itself, together, to make the "unit," our 
common country. 

The colored people of the United States should look upon 
the past as the rescued mariner re-lives the sufferings he expe. 
rienced when floating helpless upon a sea of unknown peril, 
that he may find new and more abundant cause for gratitude 
to the Giver of all mercv, and be better fitted for the realities 
of life. 

The white man should often look back upon his career of 
power and its wrongful uses, to learn how much he owes to a 
race that so long suffered at his hands. 

Hear what I have now to say, with at earnest purpose to 
so live that you will convince the world that you are worthy 
of freedom, and worthy of a country which not long hence 
will know no limit to human privilege but the perpetual obli- 
gation to do right and deserve God's blessing. 

You have different capacities, tastes and employments. You 
have many chambers in your brain, like the rooms of a house. 
All should be occupied by the right tenants. Hate must be 
expelled, and Loce must be admitted. All must work in har- 
mony, so as to secure the best results in every phase of daily 
life. ' 

YOUR llKhlGIOUS LIFE. 

This is fundamental and will shape all life. Not alone in 
the free Northern states, but while chained to the wheels of 
Southern capital and power, it has been a peculiarity of your 



Col. H. B. Car ring-ton. 11 

race, that respect for some religion has been ahnost instinct 
and constant. If, for want of other friends, a sense of depend- 
ence upon the Creator drove any to that love of religious wor- 
ship which became so characteristic, it was certainly very 
natural ; but behind that was another fact, accepted as true 
by most African travelers, and the best writers upon the charac- 
ter of the race. The African, even when heathen, is enthu- 
siastic in his devotion to some Supreme Being whom he 
accepts as the source of life and blessing. His thoroughly 
innate capacity for music finds the highest themes for jubilant 
praise and melodious chorus in worship. However restricted 
in sentiment, or novel in execution, there is an overflow of 
zeal and genuine gladness which indicates some melody of 
soul. The Mississippi steamer, the plantation, the cabin and 
the forest have resounded with his songs, when all that he 
seemed to possess to give thanks for, was mere life and the 
chance of its continuance. Whether trudging to the cotton 
fields, grinding the cane, or driving his team, the ever jubilant 
refrain told of his capacity for happiness, and how keen were 
his susceptibilities to enjoy. 

Few scenes were more full of wild and thrilling interest 
than a visit to some colored church at the South on the Sab- 
bath, when a great assembly, relieved from the pressure of 
week-day duty, made the very walls tremble with the volume 
of their song, and when a strange delight and deliriatn of 
gladness in the worship of the Great Master, seemed almost to 
separate soul from body, and take the spirit into the presence 
of the Invisible. This religious feeling has not abated with 
the rescue of the race, but, with the increased latitude for its 
indulgence, there must be a wise direction given to its fervor, 
in order that it may prove a genuine element in elevating and 
purifying life. It must be refined, methodized and instructed, 
through intelligence and wise counsels. Other conditions of 
life, preeminently that of systematic labor, must be allied with 
it, and this is to be accomplished only through your own 
improvemeut and corresponding effort to improve others. 

Your Sabbath schools vie with any in their outward pros- 
perity, and ,the generation which is now coming to maturity, 



12 Address of 



untrammeled by the sneers, the contumely and abuse of other 
races, can look up and around, and as you address the Creator 
of all things as your God, so you can shout and sing, 

My Country, "tis of thee, 
Sweet land of Liberty, 
Of thee 1 sing. 

Well was it for your race while in bondage, that, instead of 
simply grovelling like the cowed brute under the lash of 
oppression, there was music in your nature that buoyed up 
your soul and gave you access to the Throne. To be an 
African was to be at least a natural musician, and but for that 
ever present agency, the power to sing, how could the race 
have been saved from blindness and degredation too deep and 
utter to have been rescued for generations. 

Wisely do you cultivate that faculty. It is hard to find a 
spontaneous^ cheerful singer, who is either ivholly rogue or 
brute. Where song flows as the stream, from a constant 
fountain, there is almost always affection, fraternity and rever- 
ence. It has been the outlet for the joy of worshippers 
through all ages, and it is the glory of countless angels and 
archangels about the great White Throne. It is the happiest 
outflowing demonstration of purity of heart, and it rises like 
grateful incense to the Author of all that blesses man, upward, 
to that God who has given to the rustling leaves, as well as to 
the birds, a share in the ceaseless song of Nature, and whose 
entire universe is full of melody in sweet accord with his 
matchless love. 

The stoniest heart is reached by music. Cultivate it for 
yourselves and your families, and when the hour shall come 
in which to dedicate your new sanctuary to the service of 
Almighty God, let not praise alone abound, but make it a 
sacred temple, from which with a truly consecrated life, you 
may go forth into the world, and as men see your good works 
they shall know and testify that you walk with God. 

Shouting and singing are not all of religion, but when your 
music flows from the joy of a peaceful spirit and a consistent, 
pure and useful life, you may rejoice that you can sing, and 
may well sing as you rejoice. 



Col. H. B. Carringlon. 13 

INTELLECTUAL LIFE. 

Next, and handmaid to religion, and essential to an intelli- 
gent view of religious obligation and duty, in the peculiar posi- 
tion of your race is the acquisition of knowledge. There are 
old and gray headed men and women among you, and some of 
them may not live to see the completion of your new church 
edifice. How painfully have the slow years dragged, as they 
waited for the Year of Jubilee ! How has faith wavered, and 
how has it seemed as if the right hand of Jehovah was short- 
ened, that it could not save, until, when deliverance comes as 
on the wings of the morning, they can almost say with Holy 
Simei, of old, " Lord, now lettest thy servant depart in peace, 
for mine eyes have seen thy salvation ! " 

They were youth, when to strive to read, was to suffer. 
You, their children and grandchildren, no longer a despised 
race, but maturing in the work and franchise of freemen, have 
great inducement to bring every child and youth into the 
speediest and best cultivation of the head as well as the heart. 
Lead out every good faculty you possess. Help educate 
yourselves. France has repeatedly given the honors of her 
National Academy to the colored man. The President of the 
United States has acted in the spirit of the American people, 
by introducing worthy men of your color into places of trust 
and honor. The ship yards and printing offices of the United 
States no longer make complexion a test of fitness. Moral 
progress is ever onward and upward. There is no back-track 
for a revolution against iniquity. They who do not see the 
advance of Right, are the greatest sufferers, whatever their 
profession, trade or calling. To be deemed worthy as any, 
you must deserve as well as any. It matters not what may 
be your occupation, so that it be honest and useful ; but it does 
concern you that you acquire knowledge, that you read the 
history of your country, that you read of its past so thor- 
oughly as to understand the demands of the future, and that 
every child shall be early taught the principles involved in a 
fair common school education, and thus be able intelligently 
and successfully to keep an even way with those who for gen- 
erations have been in your advance. Thus, and thus only, 



14 Address of 



through this constant effort at self-improvement, will your field 
of influence enlarge, so that your people will command respect, 
and you will be able, in turn, to assist in the development and 
improvement of those hundreds of thousands at the South, 
who have not had the privileges which you enjoy. 

Thus will you lay the foundation for filling your pulpits 
with well-read and successful preachers of the gospel. It will 
not answer that they have simply the fervor of warm hearts? 
They must, with you, and more than you, cultivate the head'' 
as well as the heart. Thus also will lawyers and physicians 
spring from your midst, who will honor noble professions. 
Thus will you rise to the platform of true manhood, and the 
finger of scorn will only rest upon the ignorant and unworthy, 
whether black or white. 

POLITICAL LIFE. 

The embers that now and then flash in the extinguishment 
of the rebellion will soon be as dead as the ashes about tliem^ 
Sooner or later you will go to the polls, and as you now pay 
taxes, so will you take part in selecting the men who collect 
and disburse those taxes. As there were those who denied in 
1860 and in the Spring ol 1861 that a war was coming; as 
there were men who had no faith in its success and the has- 
tening end of slavery, so there may possibly be those who 
will not see the position you are to occupy as men. 

Temporary opposition and the discussion of its prudence or 
safety cannot long delay the consummation, if you are faithful 
to manhood, and be careful to deserve that which the nation 
tenders. Prepare yourselves for the coming duty. Nearly 
every institution of vice in the land retains life, only because 
honest, patriotic and christian voters do not unite for the best 
men and the best cause. Your votes will be wanted by 
everybody. You will find before long that you are thought 
a great deal of, and will be surprised how suddenly the idea 
came to ligiit. Become fully Amercanized ; that is, identify 
yourselves with the welfare of the entire people. Inspired by 
religion, endowed by education with the discrimination you 
require,- come squarely up to the standard of earnest, honest, 



Col. H. B. Carring-ton. 15 



and independent freemen, and your country shall have cause 
to be proud of you, as you will be proud of your conntry. 

.Already you have your color in the army. No American 
officer need feel nshained to own himself "an officer of a 
colored regiment." Colored regiments meet their duty on 
the plains, or elsewhere, with credit to themselves and the 
nation. Clad in the panoply of right, till up the measure of 
recurring daily duty, so that when you vote for the first time, 
and have a country in fact, you may feel like shouting, as I 
trust you may, when you exchange an earthly home for the 
heavenly, " home at last I " 

I am no politician, and seek none of its notoriety or honors. 
I assume a fact which I know to be assured; and, as a fellow 
man, I give you counsel upon principles of life and conduct, 
which being those of christian manhood, predicated upon the 
laws of God, govern us all, whatever our calling or color; 
and I speak under the conviction, that had I declined to meet 
you in the spirit of your assurance that my work would do 
you good, I would be unworthy my profession and my citi- 
zenship. 

YOUR PKHSONAL AND SOCIAL LIFP], 

It is possible, my friends, for a freeman* to be an educated, 
christian man, and still to lack many qualities of person, or 
habitudes of life, that impart completeness to character, and 
distinguish an eminently useful life. 

Good manners, neatness, and the outward refinement of 
the gentleman are by no means to be dispised or neglected. 
As a people you have some natural aptitudes for other social 
qualities besides that comprehended in taste for music. The 
white man has, in fact, made money from crowded houses 
for years, by calling many most pathetic, joyous or spirited 
airs, ^'■Ethiopian Melodies,^'' and has complimented you therfeby. 
If he borrows or imitates your music, see to it, that in your 
imitations from him, you select only that which is refined in 
manners and inures to your radical and permanent improve- 
ment. 

A clean, tidy cabin, however humble, if suited to your 



16 Address of 



means, can be a home that will speak to every jrassing 
stranger, of thrift, taste and happiness. 

You have abundant social feeling, and no people are more 
addicted to those neighborly reunions which develop the 
impulse of mutual support in affliction no less than that of 
sympathy in ail rational and substantial pleasures. 

Home is the first place to make happy. Let the gambling den, 
and all indulgence that wastes time, energy or money, with- 
out imparting support or happiness to your family, or benefit 
to your head or heart, be shunned as you would shun a viper. 
Slavery of the body and soul to vicious indulgence is worse 
than the slavery from which your race has been redeemed by 
blood. It is the immediate curse of this nation, and a heav- 
ier burden to bear than the national debt, that physical indul- 
gence and extravagance generally are dulling moral percep- 
tion, and running the people after that which satisfieth not. 

But, my friends, the best personal and social li e involves 
labor. Work is the law of our being. All work will not be 
alike in worldly dignity or income. Life, in every sphere- 
has its methods and values ; but the obligation of labor is 
ever present. Nature gives her examples. From the bursting 
seed, ambitious to come out to the air and breathe life with 
us, to the forest tree which by slow struggle has attained a 
power to resist the tornado and put to fault all human resist- 
ance, there is still found this law of patient, earnest work. 
If you look for a man whom you would trust, it is not the 
corner loafer ; but it is that man who, day by day, has some- 
thing honest to do, and does it perseveringly, and, therefore, 
does it well. Women work ; and in the sphere of home they 
toil with a faithfulness and devotion that does not alone im- 
part to the life of man its solace aud consolation, but when 
the care and culture of children have had their due attention, 
woman by her intuitive perception comes in with her counsels 
to strengthen and fortify man for duty, just as her gentleness, 
trust and love make of home a heaven in contrast with the 
turmoil of out-door life. 

L^/e, as a rule, is all ivork. Pleasure is but a style of rest 
to body or brain, and is the balm which soothes the strain of 



Col. H. B. Carrki^ion. 1 > 

labor, iiiul not onlv rcrrcshes the worker, but. gives new 
zest to ihe work itself. Tlieretbre, nmii niid woman, rejoice 
in your ability 1o work. The (hone of a liive iiinst die. 80 
the idle man or woman starves, and no willinjt; companion is 
fonnd to give refreshment, earned by the loil of others. The 
old proverb, that "man is the arehitect of his own fori lines," 
is a good one. Buiklings do not grow, as does the mushroom, 
in the night, to be given io man in Ihe morning, without 
labor. Even the mushroom worked ; though man did not 
help it grow, and though he slejit while it labored. The 
problem is simple, and the humblest have their appropriate 
field of labor. The whole law t)f human progress is embod- 
ied in the question of personal respectability and individual 
duty. 

A symmetrical life is not one which has placidly and evenly 
developed, undisturbed by, or inditl'erenr to its surroundings, 
but one that has surmounted obstacles, and has realized com- 
pleteness through struggle add victory. 

I have seen plaster casts that at first seemed true to the 
original marble statue which they were designed to imitate. 
How ditferently were they fashioned! The copy could have 
been made by any common worker, without the expenditure 
of much brains or genius. The original has been cut from 
the stone itself, oy countless thousands of strokes, and when 
the earnest worker underwent well nigh iiibniie anxiety lest 
in delicacy of touch, perfection of outline, or development of 
expression, contour or feature, he should so fail, that the fail- 
ure would be signal and complete. 

Thus a well developed, perfect life has felt the chisel and 
the hammer, and has attained completeness not by the pas- 
sive acceptance of a compress into some (established mould, 
which was only mechanical and without the t^therial spirit to 
o-ive to the result the highest success ; hut has been the 
sequel to struggle and blows. 

In a small attic rot)m, under a sky-light window, surrounded 

by all the circumstances that indicated indigence, isolation and 

struggle, there was heard the click of the hammer upon a fine 

2 



[X Address of 

chisel, as it took from the marble block such delicate fragments 
that they fell as dust before the worker. The eye and face of 
the sculptor were almost those of an insane man. The sus- 
pended breath was followed by sighs of relief, only as now 
and then some partial success seemed to bring a single feature 
into harmony with the ideal of the brain. 

Hours passed, and the man worked on. In the next garret, 
a cobbler pegged away at his honest work, wondering how a 
man could thus be bothered, day by day and week upon week, 
siinplfi to nil (I s/otir to shape. The sculptor died, and few 
followed him to his humble resting place. His statue, the 
aehievemeni of a life of struggle, lived on, and gave to his 
memory the savor of an honored name, and it became the 
model for copyists and worshippijig admirers so long as time 
shall render tribute to ;irt. Such is the memory of a faithful 
life and in ihai devotion to work is epitomized the law for 
your struggle and mine. As the river, that bears great ships, 
and is tributary 1o the commerce of the world, is the aggregate 
of unnumbered minor streams, so its history is peculiar. Tt 
was not always the perfect, majestic moving agent of com- 
merce. Some of its feeding tributaries gained birth in little 
springs, whose fountains had barely life enough to overllow 
their basins, or trickli> from the tnountain side, to strengthen 
drop l)y (lri>p. ilie nearest little brook. Sands absorbed and 
suns dried ont niiu-li ol ilieir iirst e\j)enditnre of moisture. 
Summer showers, or the einlv meltings of the winter snow, 
rendered timely contributions, so that at last, all com!)ined 
with other streams, alike of Inunble birth, to m;)ke that river. 
\\ oik. progress, and t lie combination of small agencies toward 
;i common end. seenreil the result. 

Thus began the struggle to achieve freedom for your race, 
and that noble man. ( "lii< f .Instice CuAsr;. who adorns the 
seat ol' ( liiel' .lu-lice 1\[\ usn \ i.i,. wtlained his place, by earnest 
work, and iibove all. that enrnest work that endures forever — 
consistent, constant work, for Tiibertv and Right. 

()nr indi\^i(lual lile. from its bci^'inninir. has been ;i slrn<'"»le. 
We ciime into the world erving. wailing ird'ants, as if con- 
scious of life'.- triiils vet to come. The first strngi;:le for a 



Col H. B. Carringion. . 19 

I'.air of bt)ots, lor niarbles;, top?;, or other bov-iirne toy?;, or 
aiiiusrineiitf^. was representaliv<^ o\' the Jat-l that all acqiiirc- 
iiienr was to be ^aiiifd ihrovii^li disire, labor and struggle. 

'riic uinltilK)!! and competition, the (piarrels and jealousies 
ol" boyhood, vonlh and inanlit)()d, v/lietlier in study, an:) ii«e- 
inent or irork. \\\\\v all had their jiaTm'.d place in this sphere 
of sirniiijle. There irave been historic periods, characters and 
einerijencies, when The distinctness, boldness and results of 
struggle have given names To dynasties, characters or issues, 
which for a time have retained their prestige as memorable 
examples for the information, warning, or encouragement of 
other generations. 

But, as a general law, as with the river, so it is with States 
and races. 'LMie ij;eneral result is regarded by tht: world with- 
out regard to the individual elements that secured the result, 
until Time's Avenger, the .Judge of all the earth, shall declare, 
before the assembled Universe, the exact uieasurc of lionor 
due even to the humblest of all his creatures. Individuals 
are smothered in the rubbish of the past, but the Onniiscient 
Father lias in keeping the record of every thought or deed 
that has advaticed his glory. 

If the Islands of the Pacitic, delivered from the bowels of 
the earth by mighty upheavals of the volcano or earthquake, 
have been fertilized and planted through the visits of the birds 
of the air, and from seeds borne across the ocean by the winds 
of heaven, how much more certainly are the small matters of 
daily duty to be traced forward and shaped by well-timed es- 
timate of their value, so that they may intelligently work to 
the perfection of character and the blessing of life. 
, One thought more, just here. 

The great victories of the battlelield have almost always 
turned upon something so slight that any other contingency 
would have lost the issue. Hoiv did tlie spade and pick-ax of 
plain Jionest farmers, tdneli/'lhree years ago, this reri/ day, give 
to Bunker Hill its gion/ ! How uncertain were the waiting 
hours, that with Blucher's arrival, gave to England her Wa- 
terloo I How, above all strange, was that madness of passion 
which evoked the American rebellion, and out of its suppres- 



20 Address of 



sion perfected American liberty, and gave to tin- world, at last, 
the exanriple of one free Republic. That vast expenditure of 
blood and Treasure was made up t)t individnal struggle, most 
of it unheralded and unhonored bi/ man, but in and through 
that struggle, there sprang forth in fresh beauty and glory, the 
secret of success for all individual or national endeavor, ^Devo- 
tion to Dutjf.'" 

To your young ujen, 1 say, that you are all sculptors, chip- 
ping out your fortunes. No man of any spirit, whether black 
or white, and having any just idea of his capacity and des- 
tiny, will be passively cast by others, from any mould, nor 
will he accept, as satisfactory to liiinself, any result for his 
life, that lacks the endurance of the real marble. 

You are all, likewise, contributing your share to the mo- 
mentum and volume of that great current of lite, which rep- 
resents the Republic, and which, tiowing out over both oceans, 
bathes the shores and receives the out-tiowing streams from 
other lands and people. You light the battle t)f life and share 
a part in the great warfare ihat must culminate in victory for 
every faithful heart, and will realize its complete glory in an 
enfranchised w oriel. 

Take my well intended eoimsels to your homes and to your 
daily work. You will get some impressions from what 1 say. 
You will have new responsibilities because of this interview. 
You can not walk a rod and breathe the air you live in with- 
out receiving some impression upon your health and physical 
being. Not a drink of water passes your lips that has not its 
humble place in the economy of your active life. Yet, a 
thankless soul, regards neither, with any proper regard for the 
Author of daily mercies, just as those who live on That belt of 
our earth beneath which the molten lava sways and surges, 
rebuild their frail habitations jitsi so soon as the foundations 
cease to tremble from the earthquake, or the lav;) fr. in the 
volcano has cooled sufficiently for their work. 

You may go away to-night, and forget, for the present, all 
I have said. Some w ho have noi fully understood all, will 
neglect to ask of others, who did. The time will come when 
you will remember every wasted o|)porumily and every slight- 



Col H. B. Carrhiirfo,,. 21 



(^d counsel. It will be ijow faulr. one and all. if you do not go 
away with soirte thonghl. aonie new purpose, some fresh re- 
solve to be better and iiK)ie uselii I, planted deep down in vonr 
breast. You are responsible for the improvement of good ad- 
vice, just as much as for the |)ro))er use of hands, that are 
given you for labor, and for obedience to that conscience 
which is e.-tabiished in vour hearts lo declare the right and 
reject the wrong. Many of you, I know, will treat this hour 
as a social occasion, quite |)leasant as it passes, forgetful that 
every hour has its lesson and its duties, and that there is no 
escape from responsibility for the improvement of every occa- 
sion in which to oain fresh incentive to become stronger, 
purer and better. 

Remember that von are bound to take part in tiailv strug- 
gle whether you do or do not wish to do so. The \\ inds of 
heaven are ever in motion. \Vh<'n you think all is silence, 
far above you, there are ceaseless currents that affect your be- 
ing, and nothing in the Universe of God is at rest. 

When men do not praise Him. the bursting seed, the lift- 
ing grain, the s|>eeding waters, tlie forming chrystals, the ab- 
sorbing leaves which live on dew and air, and those |mst gen- 
erations of shells and vegetation which have Ijeen so long ma- 
turing into limestone or coal, for the use of man, are all lively 
at work, and unceasingly join in giad tribute to the Great 
Creator for His wisdom, goodness, power and love. 

Thus, you must work and struggle, if you would attain 
any good thing. To be sure, it will not always be easy thus 
to work. There is no struggle, and nothing gained, when 
there is no opposition or resistance. Hence reward is held 
out to entice labor forward. There is no pursuit of an object, 
in hand. There is no climbing of a mountain after the sum- 
mit is reached. But, you have not reached the end of life's 
pursuit, and every hour wasted is loss irreparable. There- 
fore work on. Every passit)n, purpose or desire of man only 
works toward its object through struggle. It is f(^r each one 
of you, for me, and for every human soul to determine on 
what to ex|)end etidrt ; and to each soul is left the more sol- 



22 Address of 



eimi rt'spoiisibilit V to src to it that lie dot's not spend his 
slreiiii'tli fnr l);inl)li'-' ili;il hiirsl in llic i.'r;is|). 

1 linvc <iiilii-iciii I V occupied voitr liinc. B// I'oiikcoinitiij;- 
pro -isiu/is Of' Ilic CoHsfifii/ion of llw lirpnl)/ir. i/o/i trill rotne 
into new spherrs of dcfiri/i/ mt'l diih/. (iml corrrspondbii^ res- 
//onsihi/ifirs irill derolrc upon Jioii. 

In ni<'i'iin<i yon. on this occ ision. I cliccrlVdlv say, lliat I 
had with glaihiess ihc coining" da\ of vonr niatin'ed freedom. 
I have frit it to be niv dniv, however feebly, to attempt to 
toneh, here and there, some chord thiit wonld so vi- 
brate as to leave! u happy cadence soinuling in yonr souls. 
Have you ever thouij^ht, a inonieni, how Tar little things travel, 
or how vast the ran^e of mischief which single acts embrace? 
The disobedience of our lirst |)arents, the murder ol' Abf.i,, the 
nisciJACi; OK Ham, h;i\(' each and all swept down the stream 
of time regardless of the Higlit of ages and the death of gen- 
erations, and still, thcst; memorial sins rest heavy upon all 
who are nov/ called upon to |notit bv the lessons those crimes 
inculcate. Let yonr acts and lives cijuu' so nearly to the re- 
(juirements of duly, that, through the blood of the Great 
Redeemer, you shall do your life's work acceptably, and be 
spared the cur.se that awaits the unprofitable servant. 

It will soon be no novelty to have white men appointing 
places at which to meet and address you. I am here, casu- 
ally, on duty as a soldier, and I hope a soldier of tiie Cross, 
as well as of my country. To refuse to address you upon the 
presumption that the soldier has no interest in your welfare 
which he could express, would have been to stultify my con- 
science and refuse utterance to the hopes and expectations of 
thirty years, which are no longer matters of faith, but of 
speedy experience, as Freedom achieves its crt)wning tri- 
uniphs in equal franchise for all. I have, therefore, in the 
s|)irit, as I believe, ol" tin' great religious interest which now 
pervades this people, lold xou plainlv what seems tome to be 
a noble path for vonr st<'p.- to trac<'. 

Though, in a verv U'W (hiys I >li;ill complete the duty 
which called me here, and 1 shall certainly never meet you all 
again, it is my earne-i hope that He. whose temple you l)uild, 



Col. II B. Carmiiitoii. 23 



may meet yon '<^^ y^^'i fi^'^t assemble \\ ilhiii its walls. Build 
it with open hands and willing hearts. (Jiving to God will 
enrich and not impoverish. When eornplcted, let it be con- 
secrated with the best gifts yovi can render, the gift of hearts. 
So shall your life, when ended, go not ont like some fading 
taper, but, catching radiance from the Heavens, opened to re- 
ceive you, the spirit shall quickly pass ihe skies, to sjiine afresh 
and forever, in 1he transcendent effulgence of the Sun of 
Righteousness. Your franchise' there, will be the liberty with 
which Christ shall set his people free. Your country there^ 
will be a Heavenly country. Your home there^ will be that 
prepared lor you. from the foundations of the world. The 
Temple wherein your oflerings of |:)raise and thanksgiving 
shall be rendered, there, will be a temple not built with hands, 
but tliat which fadeth not away, eternal in th ? Heavens. So 
may yon struggh'. So may you : so may n'e all, a'i'i'\i\ I 



At the close of the address, after the band had played 
"Had Cohuubia,"' Governor Baker and Hon. .John Coburn, 
M. C, made shorr addresses in response to the demand of 
the audience, and earnestly urged upon all present, the prac- 
tical and daily application of the advice of the address. Ow- 
ing to th*e lateness of the hour. General Veatch, who was 
called Uj)on, tieeliued to sjieak. Senator Morton, who had 
intended to be j^resent, was iuia\oidably absent. 



Publishcfl in accordance with a resolution adopted at the 
close of the meeting. 



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